Palmer says Knapp told team offense would start season slow

Carson Palmer needs just 13 passing yards to become the second Raider to reach 4,000 yards in a single season, joining Rich Gannon (who had 4,689 in 2002.)

That doesn’t mean it’s been a good year.

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The Raiders are 4-10, thanks to a 29th-ranked running game and 25th-ranked defense. The passing stats are there because Oakland has trailed most of the season, but it ranks only 26th in points (18.8 per game).

Palmer said it’s tough, but not all that surprising.

“That’s just part of the deal,” he said. “Anytime you have an entire new regime, a new staff in, you know it’s going to take a while for every phase of the game to kind of figure things out and get comfortable.

“So you can’t let that frustrate you. You have to understand good or bad plays you throw on film early in the season are chances to learn and figure out how to get better.”

Palmer said offensive coordinator Greg Knapp warned the players early on that getting the offense down might be a long process.

“We’re not going to come out and understand all the zone cuts and all the reads and have a real continuity with it up front with five guys working together,” Palmer said. “He said it was going to take some time and these last couple weeks, we’ve really seen that progress come together and make consistent plays in the running game.”

The Raiders are averaging 4.5 yards a carry the last five games. Sunday, they had a season-high 203 yards rushing but couldn’t score a touchdown in a 15-0 win over the Chiefs.

“It didn’t really matter who the running back has been,” Palmer said. “It’s been Marcel (Reece), it’s been Darren (McFadden) and Goody (Mike Goodson) and even a rookie (Jeremy Stewart) in there, so it’s come a long ways.”

Palmer and Knapp both say that, with a little more patience, things will really click.

“A second year will do wonders, obviously,” Palmer said, “and with free agency and the draft and adding players here and there, you’re only going to get better.”